In 2015, I composed 4 paintings onto stretched canvas all about the squirrels in the UK.
We have our most beautiful Reds “The Native” red squirrel (Artist Code 1505); “The Albinos”, white with pink or black eyes (Artist Code 1502), “The Rogue Gene” Black, Brown and Ginger/Black squirrels (1503), and “The Forced Immigrant”, the imported greys (Artist Code 1504) and subject of this blog post.
To view the history of this painting prior to this post, please CLICK HERE
Squirrels are all very lovely in their own way and much loved by most people – although the greys are sometimes referred to as “tree rats”, and are known to carry disease which kills our native squirrel. Nevertheless, in my little wild garden they are the only mammal visitors I receive (apart from the dreaded neighbourhood cats) so I am very happy to see them. Even though they nick a lot of the bird seed put out for the few birds in my garden, they are very clever and entertaining to watch. This painting portrays their cheekiness and ability to hold on to anything in order to get some food!
I started the series way back in 2015, but as usual other things got in the way (and are still in the way but I needed a break from painting flowers!). So I got the four canvases out and have been working on the one I started to paint (remember they were all drawn in 2015) in January 2019.
Oil painting is so much fun after one has been extremely meticulous with size 10-0 brushes (about 25 hairs) painting botanicals!
